Editorial
In a drought year the odd rain shower is supposed to bring welcome respite. But each of the rain breaks we have had have brought a deluge with clogged overflowing drains, fallen trees, blown roof tops and the latest – a crashing fence of St. George School into Yamuna territory. Alas! Nothing in this country is built to cope with nature’s fury.
Esoteric days have begun to crowd the calendar. Fogies like me are not familiar with the plethora of newbie occasions that today’s youth greet each other with. I was wished, “Happy Friendship Day”, very lovingly by the kids barely reaching my knees, on 2nd August, in the park. I was delighted by their greeting. But this kind of happiness is heartbreakingly ephemeral, as you snap out of it even before you begin to savour it. The reason for that was the high velocity Frisbee game of the older kids which drove the tiny tots to the little knoll skirting the park. Poor things had to settle for playing,” Catch me if you can”, snaking between the palm fronds and the ficuses planted there. Alas!, Innocence has just a fleeting lifespan these days, before the kids hit the teens and all hell breaks loose.
Rakshabandhan this year came on the same day as Avani Avittam, an annual ritual when Brahmins renew their vows amidst the chanting of mantras. I was appalled to hear a teenage girl remark after witnessing this,” What are these half-naked men letting off their steam for”? Or words to that effect. The fact that the girl who uttered this is a South Indian Brahmin herself, spoke of the wide chasm that exists between the present and earlier generation. Our own customs and practices are being consigned to the recesses of our mind and glitzy western occasions like Valentine’s Day, Friendship Day are taking centre stage. I have nothing against the latter, but our young should at least be cognisant of Indian customs and practices.
Imagine, you have a person going at your door bell as though his finger was stuck to it. You rush out of the bathroom, hoping the towel you have hastily thrown around yourself covers most of your essentials. You throw open the door and there’s this misbegotten sociopath who’s wrecked your happiness, landing at your doorstep looking for a guy who lives a storey above you. Not any more. Attractively designed, inexpensive house number stickers arranged by S. Srinivas of A-108 have been affixed on all the Yamuna front doors so that no person comes calling at your door looking for your neighbour, thereby disturbing your beauty sleep or whatever else you are doing.
Janmashtami came on the eve of Independence Day amidst threatening rain clouds. Nandita, Keshav, Kavya,Lippa and Kashish got together to prepare a tableau in front of the tiny tots park. Sahana, Tanvi, Saishaa,Ananya, Vedika, Aradhya, Anoushka and Gauri, were all dressed in attractive costumes holding plates laden with laddu boondi.
We were not so lucky dodging the rain on Independence Day. Overnight showers had left the fountain park soggy because of which the flag hoisting ceremony was hastily moved to the badminton court. No sooner the flag hoisting was done and the children and adults were through with the singing of the National Anthem and other patriotic songs, the sky opened up with a sharp shower. A fairly good attendance ensured that the rains did not take anything away from the solemnity of the occasion. Many of the assembled audience were dressed in the colours of the national flag thereby painting a pretty sight. Pictures of the ceremony have also been posted on the blog.
The festival season is upon us with Onam opening the account on 2nd September. It is a pity that the spirit of yore is missing these days. I recall occasions when several Pookolams would vie for pride of place and the Onam sadhya was eagerly looked forward to by Malayalis and others alike. The last couple of years have seen this enthusiasm fizzle out. For children bred in the North it may seem cataclysmic if a woman was seen wearing a mundu, wondering where this androgynous specimen has dropped from, much in the same ignoramus way the comment came forth on the Avani Avittam. In order to therefore take us back to our roots and revive the spirit of Onam, a sadhya and pookolam was planned on Sunday, 30th August. Heavy rain in the morning threatened to derail the arrangements. It cleared sufficiently by afternoon to let the girls and the ladies to pour their heart into the pookolam decoration. Meera, Prema, Shanta, Shanti, Lakshmi, Anuradha, Bhavani, Aruna amongst others chipped in. Amongst the girls Nethra and Kavya led the band of young ones in helping to collect the flowers and put them in order. We had a fair gathering of people to partake in the Onam feast to the strains of Malayalam music. The girls and ladies made a pretty picture in their traditional attire.
The latter half of the month will see the celebration of Durga Pooja and Navratri culminating with Dussehra. The annual Dandiya dance is planned on Dussehra day. Residents are requested to come to the badminton court in traditional attire and with their own Dandiya sticks. There will be several food stalls to cater to all tastes. The evening will culminate with Antakshari.
SNIPPETS
Pedagogy, it seems comes naturally to Renu Viswanath of A-305. She’s has been conferred the Best Teacher Award by The Mother’s International School. Promoted as a consequence, she has begun teaching secondary school students instead of the primary classes she was teaching hitherto. She has got her work cut out.
Quite in the same vein, albeit as a student, Riya Ramabadhran of E-201 has been chosen as the Head Girl of the Primary Wing of The Mother’s International School, for her all round accomplishments.
Both these individuals deserve kudos for their achievement.
Arun Elassery of H-206 has always been a trailblazer. This IIT graduate stunned quite a few by his decision to educate his three children at home shunning formal education. He has now taken another of his maverick decisions to move into a 700 sq yards plot in Bangalore with a 300 sq yard built up area and the balance 400 sq yard plot area to provide for all the grain, vegetables and fruits to sustain a family of five. Sounds improbable, but you cannot write off anybody who thinks out of the box. They can surprise you. We wish them luck.
The flat they are vacating as a consequence, is going to be occupied by Manoj Subramanian and family who are moving from C-205.
YAMUNA'S TREES
Maulsari or Spanish Cherry
(Botanical name: Mimusops elengi Family: Sapotaceae (Sapota/ Mahua family)
Common name: Spanish cherry • Hindi: Maulsari Urdu: Kirakuli • Tamil: Makizhamboo • Malayalam: Ilanni • Bengali: Bakul • Marathi: Bakuli • Konkani: Omval • Kannada: Ranjal • Gujarati: Barsoli
Maulsari or Spanish cherry is a lovely green medium sized tree of the Indian subcontinent. With its small shiny, thick, narrow, pointed leaves, straight trunk and spreading branches, it is a prized ornamental specimen because it provides dense shade during summer and from March to July, fills the night air with the delicious heady aroma of its tiny cream coloured flowers. The tree is reputedly evergreen and finds place in many planned gardens of Delhi, but is rarely found as an avenue tree.
You can see several of these trees in Chanakya Puri, Rajpath and Humayun’s Tomb. Yamuna has several maulsari trees bordering the entrance of the main lawn. A photograph of the adult tree and a close up of its flowers are in the Yamuna blog.
Flowers are small, star-shaped, yellowish white in color, with a crown of petals rising from the center. Its oval leaves are wavy at the margin and are about 5-15 cm long and 3-6 cm wide. In the late evenings the flowers are deeply fragrant . In the morning the flowers tend to fall to the ground and if you have a dense row of trees you are likely to see a “carpet of maulsari flowers”. People often collect the flowers for pot pourri as they retain their fragrance for many days . The flowers are offered in temples and shrines throughout the country. It appears in Indian mythology as Vakula – ‘one that blossoms when sprinkled with nectar’. Its tiny green, and later brown, gnome shaped fruits are sweetish berries and can be eaten fresh .
Medicinal uses: Various parts of the tree have medicinal properties. Its flowers are used to distil an ittar (Urdu for ‘perfume’). It is used as a mouth freshener. Rinsing your mouth with an extract/ solution of maulsari/ bakul helps in strengthening the teeth, prevents bad breath and helps keep the gums healthy. The reddish heartwood is strong and is extensively used in heavy construction.
(Shanthi Chandrashekaran, with inputs from Rajeev Masodkar
For Lovers of the English Language....
There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.' It's easy to understand. . .
UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.
And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.
We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP...When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.
One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so......it is time to shut UP!
)
CALENDAR OF EVENTS – SEPTEMBER 2009
13.9.09 10 am AGM in the quadrangle adjoining the Society office
28.9.09 6.30 pm onwards Dandiya Ras followed by Antakshari. A variety of food stalls will sell their delicacies to take of your dinner needs.
HAPPY B’DAY, LORD KRISHNA!
Mount Govardhan
Yamuna’s little gopis
Click here for more pictures on Janmashtami
ONAM SADHYA
More pictures on the Onam Sadhya here !
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